7 Days to Die

[Stryfe]

Website | Wiki | Steam

7 Days to Die is an open world, voxel-based, sandbox game that is a unique mash up of First Person Shooter, Survival Horror, Tower Defense and Role Playing Games combining combat, crafting, looting, mining, exploration, and character growth.

Think Minecraft mixed with Left 4 Dead. The whole world is made of voxel blocks and is everything can be destroyed and built upon. The game applies physics so structures need proper supports, mass is taken into account and so forth. For example, me and shirenu have been living on the roof of a abandoned hardware store. When the zombies attack, they try to enter the building and attack the support pillars. If they succeed in that, the whole thing will come crashing down. So you have to be constantly fixing existing structures or building your own. There's crafting, cooking, farming, ever-important raiding and also killing scores of zombies. By default, the zombies are shambling and slow during the day, but when night falls... they start to run, so you better have somewhere safe to hide.

The game has been in Alpha since 2013, but it's very much playable and a ton of fun. Been playing it alone and with shirenu, strictly closed co-op. It's not the prettiest, or the most well optimized game out there, but it works quite well.


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Here's one review of an older alpha. Shows a lot of different gameplay footage.


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The game is currently on Halloween sale in Steam until Nov 2nd for ~10e or equivalents.

I'm thinking about renting a dedicated server for Jphip use, if we get enough interested people. This would guarantee a constant world where we could drop in at our leisure. There's also a new Alpha with a ton of new features dropping in November, so the timing would be good.

If you're interested in some laid back co-op chilling (I'm half kidding, since it's the goddamn zombie apocalypse) grab a copy of the game and join the fun.

[Stryfe]

Some pics of the game me and shirenu are playing:




shirenu posing outside of our hideout. We've reinforced a lot of the building with concrete, surrounded it with wooden spikes and built a ramp to the roof that doubles as a trap.





Home sweet home. View of the rooftop with our supplies, crafting stations and sleeping bags. Next alpha will introduce weather, so open spaces like these probably won't be ideal any longer.





A view of our little farm with potatoes and blueberry bushes as well as a view of our cotton fields.





This hole in the ground is actually an entrance into our mine. all of it was dug into solid ground. We're actually so deep that I keep getting lost trying to get back to the surface.

[shirenuファクトリー]

"We've reinforced a lot of the building with concrete, surrounded it with wooden spikes and built a ramp to the roof that doubles as a trap."

What he means is that he did those things and all I do is make sure the wood spikes are in good condition

I really don't want to go into the mine anymore, it makes me feel claustrophobic and getting confused about directions makes me a bit nauseous >_> It was fine when it was just a short tunnel... Maybe we could start a new one ?_?

The game is fun enough, not sure I'm ready for it to get a lot more challenging with elements, but we'll see Is it enough just to build a hut on top of the roof? LOL

DOGS ARE THE WORST! lol but then when you one-shot kill one it's like booyaaah.

[nachdenki]

This game is actually so far the only game I voted for when it was on greenlight. Got my copy now.

It's a little difficult to get into. But I'm slowly feeling comfortable the first few days, until the day where I run out of food because the randomness won't let me find the right stuff but with that problem I'm familiar with from playing "the long dark"...

A PvE server would be nice to have.

[Stryfe]

^ Yeah, it's difficult, but once you get the hang of it, you'll... die... somewhat less often.

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Looks like we have five peeps already, so I think I'll rent that server soon. We might as well play Alpha 12 until 13 comes along, since there's no set date for the release and it could take weeks.

The Halloween sale is still on for 7 more hours, get yours now. The more the merrier.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/251570/

[Stryfe]

We now have a server up and running! Those late to the party can pm me here or in the IRC for the details.

[Stryfe]

A view of the Jphip desert base. The hipmobile has seen better days.






Not sure if enough spikes...






A couple more views of the base and the rooftop, as well as the little well fenced backyard blueberry garden. Mmm.

[nachdenki]

I guess for the normal zombies it's enough spikes... lol

But I saw ferals dancing on those wooden poles laughing at me while destroying them! 
Besides, they just keep digging deeper and deeper under the base if not stopped early enough, well might as well fix that hole someday

[Stryfe]

Some preview vids of the next Alpha (13) by one of the devs. Hopefully in the future he records these with a better rig tho.


And here's a list someone made of (so far revealed) changes coming to the Alpha, which is hopefully out this month:

• New GUI
• New HUD
• New Map featuring multiple waypoints and the ability to zoom out to 3km
• New harvesting system
• Harvestable cars – with new parts: springs and engines
• More cars in random gen (Not limited to static prefabs anymore)
• Harvestable AC units
• Oil shale added
• Weather survival
• Water re-worked
• HD zombies
• Zombie Mo Cap
• Zombie decapitation/dismemberment
• Melee fighting mechanics improved
• Upgraded Blunderbuss
• Rocket launcher
• Machete
• Spotlights
• Barbed wire fences re-worked
• Hazmat suit
• Leather armour re-worked
• Leather duster coat
• Puffer coat
• Scrap metal hatches
• Vault hatches
• Vault door
• Abandoned House POI
• Flooded basements
• Power station POI
• HD wallpaper
• Lakes and rivers
• Return of previously removed biomes
• Chickens!

[nachdenki]

^ all pretty cool
The only thing I don't like is that you need the right tools for harvesting. It's still going to be somewhat simple with repair tool used for disassembling most things, knife for animals, and the basics like shovel for sand, pickax for mining etc but I don't like too much complexity and realism.
Kinda same with weather survival, I hope it'll always only have a small impact.

[nachdenki]

Although they are going to release A13 in a few days I'm trying to finish the basic structure of a new building on our server



It just needs a few more layers and a ramp all around as spider protection.

Next would be adding floors and a roof or probably first a proper defense wall. I assume A13 will be out before that happens though.
The building it located north of wasteland (just a few steps after the burn forest). Unfortunately close to another nice ready-to-use house  I only just found it later...

[Stryfe]

^ Looking good, nach!

Although they are going to release A13 in a few days I'm trying to finish the basic structure of a new building on our server

Last post about that by madmole on the forums was that they're trying to get it out next weekend, so you still have the week to work on your architect dreams.

[Stryfe]

Madmole posted a long preview video of Alpha 13, only watched a bit of it so far. Looking good. (well, not the video quality lol)

[nachdenki]

I mostly like A13 so far.
Actually I had written a short first impressions review but half of it was obsolete a few hours later by the first patch 
So I'm just going to say that A13.1 is yet quite a lot better than 13 and 13.2 will have even more balancing and might be something we can play on a server.
Although some people complain it's too simplified with there just being raw meat and wood and not all the different versions I think it makes it more simple at the proper points while with the skills and how you need certain tools for different jobs adds more complexity at other more interesting ones.

Just right now still even with 13.1 I think early game is quite a challenge, especially for people completely new to the game.
For example you need hide for a forge but - without watching a tutorial or something - how am I supposed to know that your best early tool for that is the bone shiv? The first few days I had been hitting the corpses hoping for at least 1 hide with my axe wondering how I'm supposed to ever get a knife for this task without a forge.

Hitting zombies in the head is quite difficult now especially with crawlers thanks to the mo-cap and thus increased head movement. It seems like you don't hit even though it feels like you actually hit the head, it's a little frustrating. Even more so with how expensive arrows are the first week or two.

I just hope they never add "spoiling" to food like they have it in Ark or also The Lone Dark. I hate it so much.
It's already bad that, at least when your skill isn't good enough - you greatly decrease the quality of an item once you repair it. A mistake you only make once. A repair penalty is also something I hate in games...

So yeah. Not going to rant too much because all things might change again with A13.2

However. One last remark. Prior to A13.1, so with A13, the moaning of the female character when running and doing any kind of activity was absurd they changed and improved that greatly however, thankfully.

[nachdenki]

Update!

Alpha 14 is out now.
Changelog-masterpost here: http://7daystodie.com/alpha-14-hits-the-streets/

I just started a solo game in navezgane and it feels even better than A13 so far.

Most notably from my point of view are things such as
- Navezgane map changed! It's bigger and better (see link above). If we play again on a server this might be a good choice, a mix of old and new.
- Quests! Very good for new players especially, you learn to survive the first day (kind of)! The start feels more rewarding.
- Skills existed in A13 already but we got perks now too (still have to see what they're like)
- Compared to A13 it's less grinding. You can also break a wooden door with a stone axe again without it taking like half an hour or more, this is more like it was in A12.

[Kakashi-tan]

So yeah... This is something I'm working on at the moment. Some "small" changes since I screenshotted these, so I'll try to upload some updated pics in the near future.

Edit: Since I don't wanna doublepost, I'll post a updated pick here:

[nachdenki]

I did allow myself to revive the jphip.com server. Available via search with same password.

A15 might be out soon-ish... like a month, or so. Maybe. And I think it'll have some features that might require a fresh world.
So it might not be the perfect time to start building something big but I thought if I do that it would be more fun on a server where other people can join if they want.
Not that I have much time to play to begin with but... yeah, the server is there now for a month at least.

If anyone invests a lot time in this and wants a copy of the world I can try to export a backup, I'll just need to know in advance.